PPSMI no longer relevant, say Muslim Youth movements

GOMBAK, Oct 20, 2015:

The Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) system that may be reinstated in the near future is seen as irrelevant and burdensome to the current generation.

National Islamic Students Association Secretary Ahmad Nazrin Shah Abd Rahman said the policy would turn students into “lab rats” if it was reintroduced into the education system.

He said the implementation of PPSMI would affect the development of Generation Y and Z while having a strong impact on the economy, apart from the social-cultural and behavioural aspects of the students involved.

“Looking at the weaknesses of PPSMI, it will not resolve the problems in the mastery of English as a whole because the modules in its implementation is still not up to par.

“It is unwise to treat the new generation as an experiment. Instead we must understand the contents of mathematics and science before they are taught in English,” he said during a Press conference at the Islamic Youth Development Hall, here today.

Meanwhile, Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM) Secretary Muhammad Faisal Abdul Aziz said the main problem faced by the government today was in providing the best options available to the rakyat based on current needs.

He said the problem stemmed from the students’ poor command of English, which needed to be addressed.

“We now see that the students in national schools have failed to master English and this needs to be addressed before PPSMI is implemented,” he said.

Muhammad Faisal also shared the experience of his friend, an engineering graduate with a foreign institution, who was shocked to see that the standard of the mathematics syllabus had been “downgraded”.

He said this was caused by the teachers’ failure to comprehend the language themselves, which forced lecturers to revise elementary science and mathematics teachings at the university level.

“Although PPSMI was implemented for six years between 2003 and 2008, there is no scientific proof that the policy had succeeded, and this may be the case during the second round (of implementation),” he said, adding that he did not want to see the deterioration of Bahasa Melayu which was the country’s official language.